The McDonnell XF-85 Goblin

A member of the Check Your 6! Facebook group recently shared a post from a company called Geektown, a 3D print company. While Geektown offers merchandise that I am far from interested in, they do have a line called Hot Skies/Cold Seas that have a few oddball "could-have-been" aircraft that made it into the test phase but not into production. One of the offerings is a six pack of McDonnell XF-85 Goblins, a parasite fighter that was to be used to protect bombers during missions that would have been beyond the range of conventional fighters. The Goblin would be carried under the bomber, then launch when enemy aircraft were nearing the bomber formation. It would be retrieved by connecting to a trapeze via a retractable hook that extended in front of the canopy on the Goblin.

The use of parasite aircraft extended back to the Great War, with planes being considered for use under airships. The Unites States Navy did put the parasite idea into use during the 1930s on the airships Akron and Macon. During World War Two both the Soviets and the Germans toyed with parasite designs and testing, with the Soviets actually using parasites in 1941 to attack a bridge. The United States put out request for proposals in late 1942, but McDonnell that submitted a proposal concept.

The XF-85 was originally conceived as a piston engined fighter that would be carried partially exposed under a bomber, but the United States Army Air Force rejected this concept due to the increased drag caused by carrying the parasite. Future developments led to the Goblin being placed within the bomber's hold, and it was conceptualized that a B-36 could carry up to three Goblins, providing a sort of flying carrier to support the other bombers on any given mission.

However, the Goblin seemed destined for failure - the first prototype was accidently dropped from a height of forty feet during wind tunnel testing. Additional testing proved that the Goblin, while showing promise, would not be fast enough to deal with the generation of enemy jets it would face, and recovery of the parasite was problematic due to the buffeting of air around the bomber. Only a few successful hookups were completed during testing, and the program was canceled.

In Check Your 6! Jet Age terms I have cobbled together these stats:

There is an existing XF-85 at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton.

Operation Torch - The Western Task Force

I have a few Operation Torch posts already on the blog, but I wanted to provide a bit of an update as to where the project stands, including a small scenario book that I will be working on soon, providing a mix of historical and hypothetical encounters that feature the United States Navy's air operations which, as part of the Western Task Force, mostly dominated the skies over Morocco. 

Thus far I have ideas for seven scenarios which include an interesting mix of American and Vichy French aircraft (the following chart includes an eighth scenario from the Check Your 6! rulebook):

I have aircraft painted for two scenarios (French Surprise and Torched), however I might replace some or all of what I have with the exceptional Flight Deck Decals range. I do have the Model 75As already from Flight Deck - I just need to ship them to Miscellaneous Miniatures for painting as doing three tone camo scheme and Vichy stripes might be beyond my skill, or at least patience, level. 

Also, something I want to try to do is offer a mini-campaign aspect for the scenario book. Years ago when I used to game the Command Decision series from GDW, one of the concepts they offered in their Over the Top World War One rules was a "bathtub" campaign - taking units and scaling them down into playable units on the tabletop while also allowing campaign movement using a hex map. I plan on doing something like this for Operation Torch - taking the numbers of available aircraft and scaling that down to 10%. This would yield the following available aircraft for the mini-campaign:

I would have to determine how to use a force pool to generate scenarios, or really I would need a scenario generator and then a way to track the force pool due to shoot downs, damage, etc. Since the campaign was so short (just a few days), any plane that is shot down would not be replaced, and an aircrew survival roll could be made to determine if the pilot is able to return to the force pool. Damaged planes might return after a full day of inaction. There are several factors that need to be accounted for.

Rules for the F-86F-2 Sabre

While the scenarios I am creating include the following rules for using the F-86F-2 Sabre as part of Project GunVal, I thought having the rules included as a blog post might be useful. As of this date, I have four Project GunVal scenarios available on the Downloads page, with maybe two or three more to work up. After that I hope to create a Project GunVal scenario mini-book and offering it as a pdf download. In the meantime, here are the rules and stats for the F-86F-2 Sabre.

• F-86F-2 stats: B7 + 2 Hx, 93/75, R2/d6, @FF: 4xMC.
• Due to the high muzzle velocity of the 20mm M39 (T-160) cannons on the F-86F-2, use a twelve-sided dice (d12) for each firing gun.
• The T-160 cannon had a high rate of fire, therefore will check for ammunition depletion at one aircrew level lower.
• The T-160 cannon had an issue with dispersion at longer distances. Firing at ranges greater than six hexes is suffers a -1 die roll modifier.
• Conversely, the APG-30 radar provided greater accuracy at longer ranges. Add a +1 modifier to all F-86F types when firing at four hexes or greater within the target's tail arc.
• Compressor Stall – When the cannons on the F-86F-2 were fired, exhaust from the guns created a cloud of gas directly in front of the nose intake which could cause engine flame out. When an F-86F-2 fires its cannon an aircrew check is required, with a -2 modifier for CABs HIGH and above and -1 for CABs MEDIUM to HIGH BOTTOM. A failed check results in an immediate reduction of one speed at the end of the phase, and a loss of one speed on each subsequent turn, plotting only forward turn codes, until the engine has been restarted. Once restarted, speed is immediately set to 2.

Here is a silent video showing some of the effects of the 20mm cannon on the Sabre.